Saying 'No Thanks' to 87,500 High-Skill Workers

Raising the cap on three-year H-1B visas would mean a boon for American companies.

By

Martin J. Lawler And

Margaret Stock

May 7, 2014 7:00 p.m. ET

The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that if holders of H-1B visas for high-skill foreign workers are being sponsored for a green card by their employers, then their spouses will be able to work in the U.S.

That's nice for those families, but the news didn't begin to address the real problem with the administration's H-1B visa policy: There aren't nearly enough visas. On April 1 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was deluged with 172,500 applications for H-1B visas that became available that day. But...